Men's Basketball Blog

BYU hit a 21-point lead on a Kyle Collinsworth layup with 15:14 left to play. Up 56-35, Anson Winder’s trey and another Collinsworth jumper capped off a 13-0 Cougar run. Free throws by Skyler Halford took the BYU lead to 70-40.

Collinsworth scored 12 points before the midway point in the second half, adding to his 14-point game total.

Alaska Anchorage couldn’t shave the lead down to less than 25 points the remainder of the game. Josh Sharp pushed BYU to its largest lead of the game at 99-65 on a free throw with just over a minute to play. The Cougars ended with a 99-68 victory.

Four players reached double figures Saturday night. Matt Carlino and Eric Mika led with 17 points each, helped by Collinsworth’s 14 and 13 from Tyler Haws. Mika and Carlino both had double-doubles with 14 rebounds and 11 rebounds, respectively.

BYU trailed 10-4 early in the first half. Matt Carlino tied the score at 12 with 14:10 to go in the half and took the Cougars’ first lead on a jumper moments later, part of a 10-2 BYU run. Skyler Halford took the Cougars to a double-digit lead, 27-17, with a 3-pointer off a Frank Bartley assist with 7:46 on the clock.

An 11-0 run took BYU to a 33-17 lead before Alaska Anchorage fired off eight quick points to cut the deficit to 33-25. The Cougars finished off the half with a 44-30 lead.

Carlino led the Cougars with 12 points in the first half. Freshman Eric Mika was also in double figures by halftime with 10 points. Both led the team in rebounding with seven apiece.

BYU had 30 points in the paint, shooting 46.3 percent from the field and only 14.3 percent from 3-point land in the first period. The Cougars held Alaska Anchorage to 30.3 percent shooting and 18.8 percent from beyond the arc. They also led in rebounds 30-11.

Winder sank 3 of 5 from behind the arc in the exhibition game against Colorado College. The Cougars look to improve upon their 2012-13 3-point shooting percentage of 33.8.

BYU was also picked to finish second in the West Coast and are slated to play a challenging schedule.

"I'm excited for all the top teams," Winder said. "Saint Mary's, Gonzaga and Iowa State are all pretty good. We play Stanford. We have Texas, and if we beat them, we could play Wichita State. Those are all big games that I'm excited for."

Along with preparing to make a run toward the NCAA tournament, the Cougars are busy building unity.

"Chase Fischer and Matt Carlino are probably two of the weirdest guys you might run across," Winder laughed. "Those two are definitely characters."

Winder might also be a character in his own right since he is seen dancing the the background of the most recent BYU basketball lip-sync video.

In its second exhibition game, BYU hosts Alaska Anchorage Saturday at 7 p.m. MDT at the Marriott Center. The game will be televised on BYUtv.

"I'm excited for our team," Winder added. "I think we have a lot of good guys this year."

Throughout the last several years, the BYU Athletic Communications staff has collected as many men's basketball stats as possible and put them into a database. From that data comes the BYU Men's Basketball Record Book, 40-pages of records and stats for your enjoyment.

Want a list of every game in which BYU has scored 100 points and the team's record in those games? Check page 39. Or maybe you want to know who holds the freshman single-game scoring record? Check page 17. Dying to see a list of every time a player scored 30-plus points? It's on page 14. What about the record for most games with 10 assists in a season? Try page 10.

Earlier this morning, former BYU forward Brandon Davies posted the photo below on Instagram and included the following ' "When one door closes, another opens.." #76ers #20 #BLESSED.' If you haven't figured it out by now, Davies has officially signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. Davies was born in Philadelphia but was adopted just days after birth and was raised in Provo by his mother, Kathy.

While details related to the contract have not been made available, Davies may have a chance to compete for minutes as soon as Wednesday, when Philadelphia opens the regular season against the defending NBA Champions, the Miami Heat. Davies had been a member of the LA Clippers until Oct. 21. He played with the Clippers during the summer and the preseason.

Davies

"I'm extrememly excited and just thankful for the opportunity."

"Coach is looking for guys who are going to come every day and work hard and bring that good attitude and help drive other people to get better. I do that myself and I think Coach sees that in me. I think I have an opportunity to help the guys around me get better as well."

"It's a great opportunity. That's going to be part of us getting better as a team, with guys competing for minutes. As the season goes on we're only going to get better."

Brown

"Good pick up. Smart, young player who wants to get better. Physical, competitive side to him. Excellent passer. Worth reaching out to and bringing in to the program and giving minutes and seeing what we might be able to uncover."

"Well, the long college basketball offseason has brought us to this: BYU star guard Tyler Haws lip-syncing on a grassy knoll to chicago's 1984 top-five hit, "You're the Inspiration." He's soon joined by teammates Luke Worthington and Skyler Halford...

Anyway, BYU is a weird place. And, yet, thank you, BYU. PLEASE MAKE MORE OF THESE."

"I honestly can't think of anything that gets me more pumped than Peter Cetera. Seriously. So I'm glad to see BYU embracing its inner cheeseball and full-body lip-synching to get people ready for COLLEGE BASKETHOOPS."

"The BYU basketball team put out a video on Wednesday of Tyler Haws leading Luke Worthington and Skyler Halford in a chorus of You're the Inspiration, a son from the '80s recorded by Chicago that I had to google because I've obviously never listened to that nonsense before.

That said, I don't think I could love this video anymore. There isn't much in this world that I find funnier than a couple of big-time collegiate athletes sitting in a field and awkwardly full-body lip-syncing to an '80s love ballad."

"Just a few days ago a video featuring BYU's Tyler Haws, Luke Worthington and Skyler Halford lip-syncing Chicago's 'You're the Inspiration' hit the internet, with the Cougars using such videos to have some fun while also promoting upcoming contests. The latest submission comes from junior guard Matt Carlino, who lip-syncs the classic tune 'I Wish' by Skee-Lo with some teammates dancing in the background.

Kinda makes one flash back to those Friday nights in junior high spent at the roller skating rink."

"We've seen some really strong (or totally awesome, depending on how you look at them) promo videos in college sports, but we've found one that ranks right up there with any of them. BYU basketball has come out with a 'music vidtacular' that encourages fans to attend the team's first exhibition game of the season against Colorado College on Saturday night."

ESPN's Play-by-play broadcaster Roxy Bernstein tweeted: "Can't wait to see what what's on the horizon for when I come to town for the Iowa State game."

Tonight is the first time Cougar fans will have a chance to see the BYU men's basketball team in full court action at the annual Papa John's Cougar Tipoff at 7 p.m. in the Marriott Center. It will also be broadcast live on BYUtvsports.com.

If you're wondering if an intrasquad scrimmage is worth your time, here's a look back at some past Cougar Tipoffs that have had their fair share of exciting moments.

Last season, Tyler Haws scored 26 points for the Blue Team in his first action since returning from his two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Philippines. Matt Carlino added 19 points, six rebounds and eight assists and Nate Austin had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds as the Blue Team won 84-70. And don't forget about this dunk by Josh Sharp.

In 2011-12, Noah Hartsock posted a double-double with 24 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Blue Team to a 74-71 win over the White Team. The Blue Team looked like it was going to coast to an easy win before the White Team went on an 11-0 run to tie the score at 65-all.

The 2010-11 scrimmage was perhaps the most competitive and exciting Tipoff in recent memory as Jimmer Fredette hit a fall-away 3-pointer to tie the score at the end of regulation. He finished with 26 points to lead the White Team to a 62-56 win.

Why is tonight's game worth your time? You'll get to see returning stars Tyler Haws and Matt Carlino. You'll see the versatile Kyle Collinsworth in a fullcourt game for the first time since 2011. You might see Boom Shakalaka 3-point champ Skyler Halford drain some high-arcing threes. You'll see the freshmen connection of Frank Bartley IV, Eric Mika and Luke Worthington for the first time. You might also win prizes from Papa John's or a bike from Mad Dog Cycles. And you will definitely have the chance to get autographs from the team after the game.

Freshman Frank Bartley IV is listed as a guard on the roster, but the clue to where he'll play is better found in his name rather than the position column. Bartley has seen time at both guard spots, as well as the small and power forward positions in practice recently. Four different spots, four different responsibilities and differing skills required for each spot.

"I'm pretty versatile," Bartley said, "so I can play multiple positions. I guess coach recognizes that, so he's trying to get me on the court."

Bartley is listed at 6-foot-3, 200, and played in high school as a combo guard. It wasn't until last year at Future College Prep in California that Bartley moved out of the backcourt. He averaged 19 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals and one block over a 65 game season in prep school.

"I've always been called a combo guard," Bartley said. "Since prep school last year, I've been playing multiple positions. I learned to play and be good at it, so now I just play everything."

The Cougars roster has big guys who can run, lengthy guys who can handle the ball and plenty of players who can play multiple positions. Adding someone else to the mix only deepens what head coach Dave Rose can do and how many different lineups he can throw at teams.

"I think Frank is a guy who brings us a lot of different looks," Rose said. "He's not just a knock-down 3-point shooter, but he's a really versatile player on the perimeter and physically he's really strong. We'll try to play different lineups and create match-ups and opportunities."

At the moment, Bartley likes the time he's getting at the four. If Bartley can handle the opposing team's power forward, a four-guard lineup might be an exciting combination on the floor. His defense may be the determining factor, but he's confident he can handle it.

"I feel like I'm a mismatch on offense," Bartley said. "I can guard the four better. It's just staying strong defensively. I know I can guard bigger players. I'm not the biggest obviously, but I just keep fighting and do everything I can."

The tenacity he brings on defense is some reflection of who he likes to watch play. Bartley said his favorite player is Russell Westbrook because he's so explosive and strong. Westbrook is "strong-minded and nobody can get him out of his game," Bartley said. The effort he feels like is necessary to play defense down low is all part of staying on the court and getting on the court as much as possible.

"We know what we have to do," Bartley said. "It's just you get it or you don't, you watch film or you don't and coach is going to put who knows it out on the court."

That's another reason he's happy to be playing four different positions.

"I actually like playing most of them because it's more playing time for me," Bartley said cracking a smile.

Bartley will be participating in the dunk contest in Friday's Boom Shakalaka and can't wait for his taste of a Marriott Center crowd next week in the Cougar Tipoff.

Hartsock played for BYU from 2008 to 2012 and averaged 8.9 points and 4.8 rebounds. He finished his career tied for second all-time in program history with 177 blocks and also surpassed the 1,000-point plateau with 1,191 career points. As a starter in 2010-11, Hartsock helped lead BYU to the Sweet 16. As an All-WCC performer in 2011-12, he led BYU to 26 wins, including the biggest comeback in NCAA tournament history.

At Boom Shakalaka: The BYU Basketball Showcase, four members of the women’s basketball team will compete alongside the men in the Skills Challenge.

Representing the women will be senior guard Kim Beeston, sophomore guard Lexi Eaton, freshman guard Makenzi Morrison and junior guard Stephanie Rovetti. Eaton was BYU’s leading scorer at 15.6 points per game last season before suffering a season-ending ACL injury. She was the WCC Newcomer of the Year as a freshman in 2011-12.

Beeston has averaged 9.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists while starting every game each of the last two seasons. Rovetti saw valuable minutes at guard as a redshirt freshman in 2011-12 but sat out last season with an ACL injury. Morrison is a redshirt freshman out of Alta High School.

The pairings for the Skills Challenge are listed below. Each team will also include a fan participant. The fans will be announced on Thursday and Friday.